Our team

At Meridiana, our strength lies in the power of collaboration. Our team brings together a rare combination of academic excellence, practical experience, and cultural fluency. Co-led by Dr. Vanessa Brown, an award-winning scholar with expertise in security and gender studies, and Frieda García Castellanos, a professional with years of experience advising governments, military and security forces, and international organizations throughout the Americas, Meridiana combines rigorous analysis with practical solutions.

 

We are more than consultants; we are experts in building bridges. Rooted in the global South and North, our team speaks the languages, understands the contexts, and navigates the systems that shape policies and practices. With trusted partners in Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Indo-Pacific, and a proven track record around the world, we operate at the intersection of gender, governance, and security to deliver relevant insights and strategies that work.
Meridiana is united by a common commitment: to design pathways to gender justice that are ethical, inclusive, and transformative. We view each project as an opportunity to elevate local voices, improve structures, and create lasting solutions.

Dr. Vanessa Brown – co-director

Vanessa Brown is an international consultant with extensive experience and in-depth knowledge in research, training, and education on gender and intersectionality. With a solid academic and professional background in sociology and political science, she specializes in transforming institutional cultures through gender perspectives and intersectional frameworks. She works globally, with experience in South American contexts, to promote Women, Peace and Security (WPS), Youth, Peace, and Security, Gender-Based Analysis Plus (GBA Plus), and intersectionality in order to address systemic inequalities in peace and insecurity and resist national backsliding on gender justice.

Frieda Castellanos – co-director 

Frieda G. Castellanos is a strategic advisor and communicator with more than 15 years of experience in the Inter-American system. She has worked with vulnerable communities as a volunteer interpreter and as a gender advisor for the security sector. She was selected by the Organization of American States/IADB, U.S. Southern Command, and U.S. Northern Command as their first gender focal point at the Inter-American Defense College, where she also became the first gender advisor (GENAD) to the Director and Commandant, serving two U.S. generals in that role.
Frieda has led institutional reforms, developed bilingual training on gender perspective and gender-based violence prevention for security and political personnel in the Latin American and Caribbean region, and helped shape WPS cross-sector policy efforts. She is recognized globally for her cutting work in podcast production and editing (end-to-end) in the security sector.

Strategic alignment for gender justice at your fingertips